Aplomb, The Time of the Bastard Iconoclast, and Beauty Mask

Aplomb 

They are distracting but keep calm
Imperturbable you are
You must continue even if you are wrong
Your composure can't be marred
In most situations you tend to believe
That anger or anxiety is flawed
So you steady your hands and knees
And deny those thoughts impossible to laud
For worry and uncertainty you cannot appease
Despite how much they tease
   They can't, they won't get to you
   Their novelty isn't true
   Focus on the task at hand
   And continue on your path as planned

The Time of the Bastard Iconoclast

This is the age of the iconoclast
There is no definition
And if there is its been dissolved
It isn't the glory of the inverted cross
Or the reappropriation of the swastika
It isn't Odin's rune or the ankh
Those who were dead live anew
Words Tupac Shakur never said bare his name
And movements he would be against
He sponsors

Marilyn Monroe's spirit is defeated
By her worship
Those who attempt to honor her life
Only denigrate what her sexuality did
For a country prude
Mickey Mouse as a heretic
Chanel's quality disfigured
Great philosophers and poets create what they hadn't
Prominent figures whose art is abandoned
For popular culture's carnage

Images and symbols are being destroyed
Only to be rebuilt to engage strange dialogue
For capitalist gains and repetition
What was represented is denied
There are no venerable symbols
All are conquered by a new rhetoric
One that excuses ignorance and misinformation
I don't believe in definition
But I also know that this is invalidating
How do you mold who someone was?

Why deny why a symbol was created?
Why doesn't your vision acknowledge
How they were defined?
Or how they defined themselves?
What in them told you
That Tupac would accept your vision
That Ms. Monroe would honor your collection
Would Chanel honor your caliber?
Does Plato or Shakespeare know you?
Do you know them?

There is a lull in creation
That must change what was made
Because individuality is owned
And instead of inspiring
It is trending to mimic
There is no nobility in this destruction
No solace can be taken in reviving
Spirits who only want rest
As this age progresses
Old art is demolished by laziness

This time will be forgotten
And the negatives of the images stolen
Will live as they once did
And the generations after us
Will create new definitions and new art
From emotions and thoughts that seem archaic
They won't try to change the past
They will deny this faux revolution
And not forgive these bastards
For their dishonor

Beauty Mask

Oh, how beautiful you are
Every blemish and every scar
Your high cheek bones and even jaw
Define a face pretty and raw
But since your birth you were told
To hide your face and fold
You must distort and achieve
A deception that magazines appease
Men always say
How pretty you look today
Your legs long and exposed
The lovely pattern on your toes
The slit in the back of your skirt
Leads to the most heavenly place on earth
And how most men seem to get there
Is acknowledging that mask that frames your stare
Those chemicals that eat your skin
Govern the confidence behind your grin
Bright red lipstick lay the foundation
Eyeliner, mascara and their patience
Deal with a barrage of compliments scorned
Until the right one from the right man is sojourned
You take him home and to your sheets
He gives you what you both had to seek
In the morning when you wake
The pillow wears your second face
And when he looks you in your nude eyes
Past last night's visual lie
He goes away
And another man refused to stay
This mask you wear so pretty that all the outside sees
Ignores the cries of the beauty underneath